The Stainless Steel Monthly Metals Index (MMI) rose 4.5% as base prices for stainless flat products continued to rise due to longer delivery times and limited domestic capacity (similar trend to steel prices).
Stainless steel producers North American Stainless (NAS) and Outokumpu announced price increases for February delivery.
Both producers announced two discount points for standard chemicals 304, 304L and 316L.For the 304, the base price is up around $0.0350/lb.
Outokumpu goes against the NAS as it adds to all other 300-series alloys, 200-series and 400-series by reducing the feature discount by 3 points.In addition, Outokumpu will implement a $0.05/lb adder for size 21 and lighter.
As the only 72″ wide producer in North America, Outokumpu increased its 72″ wide adder to $0.18/lb.
Alloy surcharges rose for the third consecutive month as base prices rose.The February 304 alloy surcharge was $0.8592/lb, an increase of $0.0784/lb from January.
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Over the past two months, most base metals appear to have lost steam after rising prices in the second half of 2020.However, nickel prices on the LME and SHFE remain on an upward trend in 2021.
LME nickel prices closed the week of February 5 at $17,995/t.Meanwhile, nickel prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed at 133,650 yuan/ton (or $20,663/ton).
The rise in prices may be due to the bull market and concerns about material shortages.Expectations for increased demand for nickel batteries remain strong.
The U.S. government is in talks with Canadian junior miner Canada Nickel Co Ltd. to secure nickel supplies for the domestic market, Reuters reported.The U.S. is seeking to secure nickel from the Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulfide Project to supply future U.S.-made electric vehicle batteries.In addition, it will supply the growing stainless steel market.
Establishing this type of strategic supply chain with Canada could prevent nickel prices – and stainless prices – from soaring on fears of material shortages.
Currently, China exports a large amount of nickel for the production of nickel pig iron and stainless steel.As such, China has interests in most of the global nickel supply chain.
The chart below shows China’s dominance of the nickel market.Chinese and LME nickel prices moved in the same direction.However, Chinese prices are consistently higher than their LME counterparts.
Allegheny Ludlum 316 stainless surcharge increased 10.4% MoM to $1.17/lb.The 304 surcharge rose 8.6% to $0.88/lb.
China 316 CRC rose to $3,512.27/t.Likewise, China 304 CRC rose to $2,540.95/t.
Chinese primary nickel rose 3.8% to $20,778.32/t.Indian primary nickel rose 2.4% to $17.77/kg.
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I work on the metal distribution side of the company.I am interested in keeping abreast of market pricing trends and market prospects.
I work in the aerospace industry and all of our test facilities use 300 series stainless steel pipe.Price fluctuations have a direct impact on our estimates of construction, so having the latest information is helpful.
We manufacture most of our spare equipment from 304 stainless steel.The price hike doesn’t affect us much because our product weighs about a pound.Our problem is the scarcity of the size charts we need.
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